Apparatus for towing and refueling aircraft in flight



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A TTOR/VEYS Extented Oct. 19, 1954 curren STATS ,tzsez ATENT orrlcs APPARATUS FOR TOWING AND REFUELING AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT Application March 31, 1950, Serial No. 153,198

Claims priority, application Great Britain April 1, 1949 28 Claims.

This invention relates to the refuelling of aircraft in flight, including the transference of liquids other than fuel, and to the picking-up and casting off of a tow between two aircraft in flight.

The main object of the invention is to enable these actions to be carried out by a novel method, of a much simpler and more direct kind than methods hitherto used, whereby the somewhat cumbrous operations of passing a line from one aircraft to the other, making a connection to a refuelling hose and passing the hose back again for connection to a refuelling coupling are eliminated.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus adaptable in essence either to refuelling or to taking another aircraft in tow and releasing it again in flight, with or without refuelling. The earlier methods mentioned above were unsuited to towing since connection had necessarily to be established by elements trailed from each aircraft, the completed connection being in the form of a trailing loop. Our novel method is equally applicable to refuelling and to the establishment and releasing of a towing connection between two aircraft, the essential elements of the apparatus in either case being substantially the same. Both functions may be combined by using a form of the apparatus adapted for refuelling and having sufficient strength in its several parts and connections and in its anchorages to the aircraft concerned to sustain the towing loads.

In our novel method the first or leading aircraft trails a relatively short element which, when refuelling is in question, is hollow and constitutes a fuel-conveying pipe, and the second or following aircraft, approaching from behind, thrusts a rigid, forwardly extending element, which may likewise be hollow to act as fuel conveying pipe, into or onto the extremity of the trailing element, whereupon a spring-latch device couples the elements together. It is preferable that the trailing element be either in itself flexible or include or be connected to the aircraft by means of articulated joints, so that its extremity has at least limited freedom to swing vertically and laterally to accommodate minor changes of station of the following aircraft after connection has been established. It is also preferable that this element should not extend rigidly rearwards, being so constructed or mounted that its extremity can yield forwardly when subjected to the thrust of the rigid element mounted on the following aircraft. At the same time sufiicient resistance to this thrust must be exerted to enable the engaging force of the spring latch device to be overcome. To provide for this the trailing element may carry at or near its extremity some form of drogue or drag-creating device which furnishes the necessary resistance; such a drogue may also serve to cause the trailing element to trail without pronounced droop.

The hitherto known methods mentioned above are inherently inapplicable to the refuelling of small aircraft and single seaters owing to the bulk and complexity of the apparatus installed in the receiver and the need in practice for a second crew-member to operate it, even if its action is largely automatic.

A technique for refuelling or/an-d towing relatively small aircraft and single-seaters and appropriate apparatus for this purpose is therefore part of the objects of our invention; and the novel method described above with the tanker or tug in the lead and the small aircraft following is suited to this purpose on account of its simplicity and because the apparatus installed in the following aircraft is light, simple and compact and only needs the simplest control, if any.

Another object of the invention is to enable more than one (smaller) aircraft to be simultaneously refuelled and/or towed by a larger aircraft. This is rendered possible by the relative shortness of the trailing element and its relative compactness when retracted and stowed enabling one large aircraft to trail connecting elements from both wing tips and from the tail.

Provided the following or towed aircraft keeps accurate station, which is not difficult in close formation, there is no serious risk of collision and entanglement of the connecting elements is almost impossible.

The element trailed by the leading aircraft may be a short length of hose, or hawser, mounted on a reel or Windlass, or a jointed pipe, or rod, connected to the aircraft by a joint providing for limited fore and aft swing and from which the inboard part of the pipe or red depends approximately vertically with the outboard part trailing approximately horizontally from a joint providing for vertical swing by which it is connected to the inboard part, a further joint, e. g. a swivel joint in the inboard part, being provided to enable the end of the outboard part to swing laterally. Alternatively, a rigid telescopic pipe or member mounted on a universal joint with spring centring means may be used.

Yet a further object of the invention is the provision of a simple and reliable means for establishing the connection between the fuel-conveying or/and towing elements of the two aircraft and for bringing their extremities into the correct relative position without calling for too high a skill in aiming on the part of the pilot of the 

